The first meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the new INTERREG MAC programme for the period 2021-2027 was held on 29 November 2022. The meeting was opened by the Vice-President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Mr. Román RODRÍGUEZ, and was attended by representatives of the European Commission, governments of Spain and Portugal, regional governments of Madeira, the Azores and the Canary Islands and African partner countries, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Mauritania, Senegal and Sao Tomé and Principe.

The Managing Authority of the Programme, Mr. Julián ZAFRA, Head of the department responsible for European Affairs, led the session, where the relevance of the cooperation between the European Union and Africa through the Interreg MAC programme between the outermost regions of the Macaronesia and the seven African partner countries was emphasised.

The Interreg MAC 2021-2027 programme has a larger financial envelope than in the previous period, almost €200 million, 169 million of which come from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). It will finance territorial cooperation projects in the fields of applied research and innovation (Smart MAC), ecological transition, green and blue economy, combating climate change and risk management (Green MAC), improving cooperation governance and institutional capacity building (Governance MAC) and managing mobility and migration (Mobility MAC).

The Monitoring Committee, among other informative issues, adopted the creation of a Steering Committee for project selection and operational management decisions, agreed on the simplified cost system to be applied to reduce the administrative burden in the financial management of projects and defined the indicative calendar of calls for proposals for the entire period 2021-2027.